{"id":79252,"date":"2022-12-13T13:27:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T18:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&#038;p=79252"},"modified":"2022-12-13T13:27:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T18:27:29","slug":"big-fish-tale-450-pound-sharptail-mola-washed-up-on-north-topsail-beach","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/big-fish-tale-450-pound-sharptail-mola-washed-up-on-north-topsail-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"Big fish tale: 450-pound sharptail mola washed up on North Topsail Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/FjEHAQpXoAoHAZd_Gabriela_Hogue_edited_nik_800w.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Lily Hughes with a sharptail mola recovered from North Topsail Beach. The fish is lying in a blue pool.\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 0.86em;\">Dr. Lily Hughes with the sharptail mola recovered last week. Photo: Gabriela Hogue\/NCMNS.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An unusual find last week along the eastern North Carolina coast has captured the fascination of many, and, in particular, ichthyologists with N.C. State and a North Carolina museum.<\/p>\n<p>Lily Hughes with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences studies the evolution and biodiversity of fishes. She says a fish known as the sharptail mola washed ashore near a fishing pier at North Topsail Beach last Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t do this behavior, you know, if they\u2019re healthy,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut we\u2019re not exactly sure what happened with this one. We saw some marks on the side that could have been a boat strike but we\u2019re not really sure right now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicradioeast.org\/2022-12-05\/big-fish-tale-450-pound-sharp-tailed-mola-washed-up-on-north-topsail-beach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Full story at Public Radio for Eastern North Carolina<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This sharptail mola will be preserved, which will allow researchers around the world to learn more about the unusual fish.<\/p>\n<p>If you visit the Museum, don&#8217;t miss our model of a 1,200-pound <em>Mola mola<\/em>, or common ocean sunfish, in the Nature&#8217;s Explorers Hall on the second floor of the NEC. The model was made in 1926! <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ncmns.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/24\/on-exhibit-ocean-sunfish\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about the history of our<em> Mola mola<\/em> here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79255,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/79252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/79252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}